Archaic period

The Archaic period was a period of Greek history from 600 to 480 BC, following the Orientalizing period and preceding the Classical period. The era was marked by a massive increase in the Greek population, the establishment of the poleis (city-state), an intellectual revolution, the rise of black figure pottery, the development of the Greek alphabet, the creation of Athenian democracy, the Spartan conquest of Messenia, the introduction of helotage in Sparta, the hoplite's becoming the core of the Greek army, and the formation of the Peloponnesian League.